City Commission - Regular Meeting

The City Commission of St. Pete Beach together. It is 6 o'clock p.m. on August 25th, 2026. Will you please join us and rise for the Pledge of Allegiance? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. City Clerk, will you please call roll call?

Commissioner Marriott? Here. Vice Mayor Robinson? Here. Commissioner Causey?

Here.

Commissioner Maldonado?

Here.

Mayor Tate?

Here.

We have a quorum.

Thank you. Are there any proposed changes to the agenda?

I have some questions on consent items. Okay. Just for clarification purposes, items B and C. And then A. Correction for J. Correction on J.

Okay. Thank you. I'd like to add an item to discussions. Sure. Mothballs on the beach.

We have a motion to approve the agenda as amended.

I'll move to approve the agenda as amended.

Second.

Commissioner Marriott? Yes. Vice Mayor Robinson? Yes. Commissioner Causey?

Yes.

Commissioner Maldonado? Yes. Mayor Tate?

Yes.

The motion carries.

Okay, thank you very much. Moving on to our presentations. First presentation, microtransit services, consideration of contract amount or discontinuation.

Good evening, Mayor, Commissioner. Mandy Edmonds, resident services director for the record, and we'll be going through the presentation tonight. For transit services, So tonight we're looking for commission direction on transit services. The presentation covers two related topics. First, the city's microtransit procurement, where things stand, and the direction we need from the commission on the program's future. Second, PSTA service and funding update for FY27, including ridership data, service options, and the direction we are requesting on the scope of its service in St. Pete Beach. We'll move through four parts tonight, the microtransit procurement process, the microtransit direction request, and the PSTA service and funding update. And the PSTA direction request. Brad Miller is here. He is the CEO for PSTA. And then the assistant city manager, Adam Poirier, and I will be happy to take any questions at the end. So let's start with where the microtransit procurement stands today. The city issued a competitive solicitation or request for proposals for microtransit services. Five vendors submitted proposals by the deadline, including the vendor currently under contract with the city. Bids ranged widely from anywhere to approximately $225,000 to over $1 million plus on the high end. To put some names to those numbers, we did have our current service provider bid mid-range and submitted under the current service model. The bid opening is complete, but the full procurement process has not been completed. The proposals still need to be vetted by city's internal evaluation committee before staff can bring forward a vendor recommendation. Tonight's request is not for a vendor selection, it's for direction on the program itself, which I'll get to in a moment. One more note before we move on. Microtransit is not the city's only public transportation option. PSTA also provides service here in St. Pete Beach, utilizing the Suncoast Beach Trolley, Sunrunner, and PSTA access. And we'll walk through that in more detail later in the presentation. So staff is requesting commission direction on the future of microtransit program itself. Two options are presented for consideration. Option one is to retain the service. Under this option, the commission would direct staff to continue microtransit service and establish a not to exceed dollar amount for the contract. Service to residents continues uninterrupted. The commission sets a firm budget ceiling and staff proceeds to negotiate final contract terms within that cap. With vendor selection and pricing finalized administratively once the evaluation committee completes its review. Option two is to discontinue the service. Under this option, the commission would direct staff to remove microtransit from city's program offerings completely. This eliminates the ongoing budget exposure for the service, but residents may lose access to transit options. Staff would begin the wind down and the transition of the program. The current contract would simply be closed out and no new procurement would be needed. Staff respectfully request that commission select a direction so we can proceed accordingly. Moving into PSTA. So the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority and the city's funding support for its services. For FY27, PSTA is proposing a city subsidy of $242,000. $242. $2,000, yes. That's a change from FY26. The prior subsidy funded for the Suncoast Beach Trolley, PSTA access, and Route 90. PSTA is proposing to eliminate Route 90 for FY27, so the proposed $242,000 would fund only the trolley and PSTA access going forward. So now a quick ridership snapshot on this slide. Covering the first 10 months of this fiscal year, all figures are up more than 20% compared to last year. That's largely tied to hurricane related service restoration. So keep that context in mind as we look at the additional numbers. On the Sunrunner, the northbound service into St. Pete, boardings, or St. Pete Beach, boarding, or no, St. Petersburg, boardings at the three southernmost stops totaled roughly 80,000, 57,000, and 70,000. I want to flag that one thing clearly here. Sunrunner is shown for visibility purposes only. The city does not currently supplement this service financially. On the Suncoast Beach Trolley, which is the service the city does fund, the St. Pete Beach segment saw about 70,000 boardings over the same period. Again, up about 11%. Roughly 15% of the total trolley ridership boards within St. Pete Beach at the south end of the line. One important operational detail, the trolley currently terminates at 75th Avenue. That's relevant context as we move into the next slide on service options. PSTA Access, the paratransit service, the trip count data specific to St. Pete Beach for FY25 and 26 is still pending and will be available at a later date. There is an important contingency to flag, however. If the city were to discontinue trolley support, PSTA Access pickups in St. Pete Beach would be limited to areas north of 90th Avenue from Egan Park north to Treasure Island border. That would be a meaningful service reduction for residents south of that line. We are still vetting how Sunrunner Access impacts paratransit service with PSTA. Given the possibility that microtransit service could be reduced or eliminated, PSTA is offering the St. Pete Beach resident U-Pass as a potential alternative. This would provide up to 200 city-branded Flamingo fare cards offering free rides on all PSTA bus service, the Trolley and the Sunrunner, for verified St. Pete Beach residents. It excludes PSTA access. The estimated cost is $4,000 in year one, adjusting afterward based on usage plus an annual inflationary increase. Staff would still need to gather more additional information from PSTA before moving forward with this option. On extending the trolley, staff asked PSTA for the cost to extend service south to Don Cesar. PSTA provided the cost to extend to County Beach. County Park estimated at about $175,000 to $200,000 in additional annual subsidy. Assuming that the cost is based on distance, extending further south specifically to the Don Cesar would likely double that estimate. Staff respectfully request that Commission review this funding, ridership, and service information and decide on the future scope of PSTA service in St. Pete Beach. So that brings us to the direction we're requesting from Commission at PSTA. Two questions. First, does the commission wish to continue funding PSTA service, the Suncoast Beach Trolley and PSTA access for St. Pete Beach? Second, if yes, at what service level? That includes the proposed $240,000 base subsidy and whether the commission would like to add elements such as resident U-pass or the trolley. Staff and PSTA respectfully request the commission's directions on both the microtransit and PSTA items presented tonight, and we are happy to take questions.

Commissioner Maldonado.

So normally we see a staff recommendation. Do we have a staff recommendation?

We do not have a staff recommendation at this time. We are still going through the procurement process as far as micro transit is concerned. So at this point, we do not have a recommendation. We're just looking for guidance whether to move forward in the procurement process or to eliminate the service.

Mandy, thank you. And you said U-Pass would be free. You mean it would be no cost to residents. It's not free. We would be paying for it still.

It would be that $4,000 charge as we know it right now. We're still gathering information from PSTA on what exactly that program would look like.

Thank you.

Commissioner Causey.

I'll just talk to PSTA for a moment here. So can we clarify in my mind what Route 90 is?

psta route 90 i'm going to kind of defer to our assistant city manager on some of the details for the psta questions so right here too if i speak wrong but um route 90 was originally from 34th street south down the bayway and then into st pete beach so it was a relatively uh small route that had been recommended for uh removal by the psta board so I don't know if they've officially voted on removal of that, but they were. Where's the terminal?

The ending of Route 90 in St. Pete Beach or on that route that we're going to cut?

I believe the county park. Is that correct, Brian? Yeah. County park.

Okay. And then... In general, I had a general comment. I'm living right there and past the place of County Park all the time. And it's very common to see two Sunrunners parked there for a period of time. And occasionally there will be a third Sunrunner that can't fit into the county park and it's parked on Gulf Boulevard. So that's blocking the bike lane and one of the lanes on Gulf Boulevard while they're waiting for one of the other two to leave. So I guess my general question would be, is there a waiting time that they have programmed into the route at the county park? Because our county park's not very large. And it seems like it's not a great place to stop and wait. So I would like to understand that more. And also, maybe there would never be two of them parked there at the same time.

I don't have an answer.

Yeah, I'm just posing some questions since Brad's here. And I think that's something I would like to understand.

We'll definitely get the answer.

Commissioner Causey, please speak into your microphone.

This microphone?

Good evening, I'm Brad Miller, I'm the CEO of the SBA, thank you for having me.

That was the easy question.

Yeah, okay. Yeah, so we're supposed to have. Maximum of two Sunrunners there. Yes, there is a scheduled Recovery time which is what we call it. They get about ten minutes They're at the end of the line of the County Beach Park before they go around and go back to st. Petersburg. So I do know that yeah, there are sometimes two if you've seen three that's not supposed to happen The goal the whole system is supposed to operate so they all stay evenly spaced I will definitely take that back Make sure that there shouldn't be a time when you haven't seen three. That's why probably it was parked outside, because you're right. There's not enough space for three buses to be there.

Yeah, I understand how schedules can get off on something like that. But does that have to be the end of the route? Is there a way that we could make the service to St. Pete Beach stop there and then leave so that there's not a bus just parked at that place? And that would probably stop that whole problem.

Yeah, well, essentially the Sunrunner, you know, just goes back and forth and sort of like a loop, essentially, from downtown St. Petersburg to the beach. And, yeah, so the County Beach Park, and then there's another layover at the other end in St. Petersburg.

So there's only two stops on that whole route?

There's only two spots on the route where they do have recovery time.

Oh, recovery time. OK. So we couldn't change the recovery time to a different spot.

I would be happy if we could look into reducing the amount of time at the beach or making it less often that you have more than one bus there.

Yeah, I think that would be a key improvement. So I guess that answers that question. And then that's it for me for now then. I've got a few more, but I'm going to. Commissioner Robinson.

I have a question. What was the ridership or what is the ridership for the 90? The Route 90.

Oh, it's relatively low. Essentially, that route has been there a lot longer. And it has come from St. Petersburg going south past the Don Cesar and then up. And it just operates very few trips in the morning and in the afternoon for work trips, mostly people that are working at the hotels. And most of the riders have transferred to using the Sunrunner, which comes much more frequently to the trade winds.

What is the ridership though on that? I'd have to look up exactly what the ridership was on it. Just trying to compare that to what the trolley is.

Oh, it's much, much less. Much, much less than the trolley.

Is it 10,000? Is it 40,000? I mean, much less is a very nebulous term. So I'm just trying to get a handle on what much less it would be.

Zero.

It's not zero, but it's very low. It's maybe less than a thousand a month. And the trolley is more like 60,000 a month.

For June, the Route 90 was 785. Okay, thank you.

So you're cutting that just due to cost and ridership?

yes okay thank you so uh sorry just to make sure i level set my head so uh route 90 the decision to to discontinue that is effectively done right you're not asking our opinion on that if i'm understanding correctly that's a decision that's been made route 90 will cease

Officially, the decision has not been made by the PSA board that's going to be made tomorrow. Okay. Whether or not to go with staff recommendation to eliminate that around. The financial information that was presented to you on $242,000 being the operating cost for St. Pete Beach of the transit services for the trolley and the PSC access service for fiscal year 27 does not include the 90 Assumes that the PSA board will vote tomorrow to not operate the 90 okay last year's number of 220 did include the 90 so I'm sorry, I just struck like I'm trying to retain the numbers in my head.

So last year we paid 220 with route 90 and with route 90 right okay um take some notes here so i can keep this straight in 2026 we paid 220 000 uh including route 90. correct okay uh and presumably next year would the the baked in number for 2027 assumes that 90 is not going to be there correct right and the 2027 number is 242. okay uh okay uh all right uh so i'd have to just be up front with you i'm hearing 42 000 more for a drop off of 90 right 220 was there was the cost last year did i hear that right 220 for last year includes 90 includes drop 90. Including Route 90.

Including the portion of Route 90 that's in St. Pete Beach for fiscal year 26, the year we're in now. Yes. And then 242 for fiscal year 2027. Excludes Route 90. Excludes Route 90.

Yes. OK. So I'm just making sure I hear it again. More money, Route 90 gone. Am I mistaken on that? You are correct on that. OK. Assuming Route 90 goes away, what does that leave us with PSTA buses in the city that will remain? I think we've still got the trolley, and then we've got another one that comes on the north side. What remains? Let me just ask you that. Current bus service in St. Pete Beach today versus what might change if Route 90 is eliminated?

which route does that lead us okay so right now you have the suncoast beach trolley which comes down gulf boulevard all the way from clearwater down gulf boulevard all the way down into pat through treasure island and then into st pete beach and ends at 75th and gulf okay um and we've provided the ridership on that in saint louis beach Number two is the Sunrunner that comes from St. Petersburg on the Sunrunner that goes to the County Beach Park. And then third, today, is the Route 90, a very limited service just in the morning and in the afternoon that operates in the County Beach Park but comes down through the Bayway. In addition to that, PSD access service, paratransit services for

About 3,800 people this year through June, this fiscal year so far.

That's also provided today. Next fiscal year for 242,000 is the Suncoast Beach Trolley down Gulf Boulevard, St. Pete Beach 75th and Gulf, Sunrunner, and the PSC Access Services.

Okay. Sunrunner to County Beach. So I'm drawing a map in my head. I wish I had a map that would kind of tell me, show me the routes, right? So I've got a trolley coming down from Clearwater to 75th and Gulf. Sunrunner, I know it ends at County Beach. Where does it come through? Does it come across 75th, I assume, and comes down to County Beach?

It goes up Gulf Boulevard, turns on 75th, and goes to downtown St. Petersburg. Right. Okay. And just back and forth.

So between County Park and up 75th. Okay. And then... before we've got a route 90 which comes across the bayway and back up to the same county beach that may go away uh pending decisions going soon okay um and then the 220 the 220 000 that we paid in 2026 that included route 90 did that also include the the psta access i guess the the handicap piece was that baked into the 220 or was that an additional charge on top of the 220 for 2026. Well, that was included in the 220. It is included.

Yes.

Okay. Okay. All right. I'm just kind of mentally just drawing this out. So we've got most of our theoretically, if route 90 goes away, we've got most of Ireland covered north of County Park. But everything south is now unserved from PSTA's perspective. If I just mentally map that out right.

Well, let me ask, were there any stops to the south? Or was it really being served, I guess I would say?

I mean, as I've mentioned, it's about 700 and some total riders per month, pretty low ridership. I know the other stop that workers at the Dances are use that. Some workers would no longer have bus service.

Well, was it stopping there? It just goes to the county park, and then they were making their way from there to the...

It comes down 34th Street in St. Petersburg, then across the Bayway, past Eckerd College there, and then to the Don Cesar. People would get off there, and then it would go up Gulf Boulevard, too, and at the County Beach Park.

So it's really the 34th Street people that are not being served at this point? Right.

But what we believe and what we are you know that some people are already doing but we believe is an alternative for those same workers would be that they can they can take we have a good service on Route 34 in Saint Petersburg up to the Sun runner and then they can come over here on the Sun runner down the county are something more to some the only only stuff that would not be serving more would be at the dances are.

Okay, I'll pause for a moment.

Yeah, thank you. Thanks, Brad. I did have a question. I wanted to clarify a couple things about the PSTA access program. And so the access program is it's both dedicated or shared ride handicap vans. Is that correct for people in wheelchairs and that sort of thing?

and also essentially like subsidized uber rides for people who can't can't get to the bus stop or can't have have a disability that prevents them from being able to get to a bus stop is that the or ride the bus independently is that yes i have that basically all of the psa access services for people with disabilities uh people who have a disability they qualify for both programs either the regular van service or what we call mobility on demand, which basically means same day or real time requests using an Uber or Lyft or a taxi.

Okay. And people have to apply to the PSTA. You guys have a program where they apply, they get verified, they get approved, and then they can use that program.

Right.

And is that program, and I may have this incorrect, are people only eligible for that program if they're a certain X number of miles away from a bus stop or not? Or it would be for all of St. Pete Beach. If we pay for the service, it's for anyone in St. Pete Beach, whether there's someone in Paso Grille. It doesn't matter if there's not a bus stop close to there. They still have access to that program.

Right. That is our current policy. OK. Is anywhere.

OK. Anywhere. OK, perfect. Thank you. And then I think a minute ago you said, I thought you said a number of riders from St. Pete Beach who participate in the access program? Or was I misunderstanding a number that you said?

Oh, right. I looked it up. So far, this fiscal year through June 30th, from October 1st through June 30th, was 3,800 trips starting in St. Pete Beach. Okay. And about the same number returning to St. Pete Beach.

Okay, so 3,800 one-way trips out of St. Pete Beach.

On the access and the mobility on demand combined.

Got it, thank you.

The year, I'm sorry.

The fiscal, so October 1st through, you said the end of July, June 30th.

Nine months. And can you clarify where the, if they started in St. Pete Beach, what are the limits of where they're headed to under that program? I mean, how is their, what is their destination?

Well, the service goes anywhere in Pinellas County. Okay.

So anywhere in Pinellas County. Okay.

A lot of medical trips and other key services. Again, they're all people with disabilities. Mostly the average age is pretty old, and they are going everywhere.

Yeah, it's grocery stores, shopping, doctor appointments, whatever. Yeah. Yeah.

Thank you. Is the call still on now? I missed that. What was the cost on that for just the PSTA access and mobility on demand?

Is there a separate cost for that? We haven't developed a cost of just that. We're happy to provide that if you're interested in that. Yeah, I'd be interested in that.

I can see you working over there.

Brad, so is any of that subsidized? I know that it's not covered through our ad valorem or anything like that. Tourism development tax, city, county projects that we're not aware of with the access.

No. Well, it's covered by the PSDA budget. PSDA ad valorem covers that. But the city of St. Pete Beach, it's only the funding that you provide to us that covers it. It's included in the $220 for this year and $242 for next year.

And then rider fares, of course, are on top of that, right? Right. We pay a chunk, but the riders are still paying a fare.

Right. The customers on PSA Access pay $4.50 per ride for that service. And the bus service costs $2.25 per ride. Okay.

I'll come back to it. Thank you.

Oh, okay. I'll go ahead and ask a question then. So thank you. I appreciate it. So just trying to get an idea of cost per ride. I'm seeing that, so the 7,000 number we were using, is that, what is the timeline on the 7,000 for the Suncoast Trolley number that we were talking about, ridership? Was that per...

70,000 was the number.

70,000, okay, yeah, 70,000, that's right. And that is for per, is that what timeline was that number for?

10-1-25 to 7-31.

So that's currently through June, okay.

This data on the Sunrunner there was for 10 months, that included the month of July. The access numbers I only had through June.

So $7,000 a month or $70,000 for 10 months.

Right. That is the number of boardings on the Sunrunner at the county beach park.

on the Sunrunner. No, the number we're looking at is the 70,000 for the trolley. Yes. But still the number of boardings. Oh, okay. The number of boardings in St. Pete Beach, correct? Not total ridership of the entire trolley system.

Correct, that is the number of boardings in St. Pete Beach of the Suncoast Beach trolley.

Okay, that's what I was thinking.

Over 10 months.

Yeah.

Over 10 months, yeah.

But it's only, actually, it's only 15% of that number, as I understood the way it was stated.

No 15 that number is 15 percent of the total trolley ridership.

OK. All right. The total trolley ridership all the way up to Clearwater about 15 percent of the people that ride out all the whole trolley system board in St. Pete Beach. OK. 70,000.

OK. Now. Yeah. OK. That makes sense to me now. OK. Have you all ever, could you tell us the numbers that you guys calculate on cost per ride for the Sunrunner and the Suncoast trolley?

yes well uh we have that data i know that the sun runner is our highest ridership route in the whole county and it is the lowest cost per ride of any of our system of any of our system i think our average cost per ride of our whole of all of our bus routes is about seven dollars per ride um total subsidy i know that the suncoast beach trolley obviously it has um a high ridership year-round very high ridership during the spring break spring period of course and it is also one of our lower cost per ride services so it's somewhere probably in there five dollar four five dollars a ride so I don't totally understand that because the seven dollars a ride for example that would be a function of how much each city happens to be paying for

they're part of that service. And so I guess your $7 number takes into account that's your cost to run the service. Is that right? So our cost would be how much we pay and then how many riders come or leave our city. And so we would divide out what we pay into like what we think our ridership is that actually goes to the county park or to the stop for the Suncoast trolley.

Yeah, I think, Commissioner Causey, what we need, I think two things. One is that we don't pay for the Sunrunner. So in St. Pete Beach, we're not paying anything for the Sunrunner. So there's no contract cost that we pay for the Sunrunner. We don't pay into the PSTA system on our property tax bill. I believe it's us, Treasure Island and South Pasadena that opted out of the PSTA system. Everywhere else in the county, they have a line item on their property tax bill with a specific millage that goes towards PSTA. And we don't. And we don't pay for the Sunrunner in St. Pete Beach. Okay. So we have zero cost for the Sunrunner. Correct.

All right. So I was just trying to.

Our cost is only for the trolley.

So to separate out cost for a ride, we're really just talking about the Suncoast trolley. We're talking about the trolley and the access. And the access. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Yeah. That's great. Yeah. All right. I just want to do some more math here.

We're fortunate we've got a.

I only have a tiny head start because I've only been there for a little while they do on the PSTA website for for anybody that's interested in these numbers they do publish monthly ridership data per route and Including the cost to run the route what the cost is what the dollar amount is per writer what the dollar amount is per writer after you take into account what the the fare that the writer pays and then also what the dollar amount per writer per route is. once you factor in any um dollar amounts that a city like us contracts with psta or federal funding or all the various things so it is it is broken down very specifically in a lot of psta reports that are available on the psta website

So since the now the Sunrunner coming here doesn't give us the beach the access services it's the Suncoast trolley contract that allows us to have those services is that the way I'm understanding that.

In the past right the our contract for St. Pete Beach contract with PSTA includes whatever bus routes there are plus the psta access program yes yes and if we had been the way it's been if we had zero contract with the psta if if st pete beach completely opted out and said we don't want anything to do with it we're not paying you any money would anybody in st pete beach still be eligible for pst the psta access program um that would be up to the psa board i would think not yeah okay

Can I ask the question a little differently? Because I think I want to make sure.

There may be a federal regulation that you provide the PST access program to people who are some distance from a bus stop. Right. So for people who are three-quarters of a mile from every Sunrunner stop might still have access.

I think that is accurate.

But the rest of the residents would not. Right. Okay.

Can I ask a quick question of Mandy please? I notice this is titled Michael Transit and we're talking very much about the PSTA and I know you kind of touched in on freebie. So I just want to make sure I understand what you're asking for from us this evening is to retain the service at some level of funding that theoretically includes PSTA and freebie because you've tied them into this conversation or some micro transit because you've tied them into this conversation together.

They're kind of tied in together, but they're still separate, so we're looking for two separate directions. So we are looking for a microtransit direction, whether or not to keep the service, and if we do keep the service, what are we capping the funds at? Same with PSTA, our request for the PSTA is gonna be continue the service, and if we do so, at what service level?

At what service level, is that a level of funding or?

Yeah, the funding, the 242. Or do we want to add elements such as the U-pass and trolley extension to go down further than County Park? I think I'm explaining that correctly.

So there were some questions to staff to explore what replacement options would be if we eliminated micro transit. So we decided to marry these two.

Okay.

Because they're down directly related if you want to use PST a in some capacity to fill the gap if you eliminate micro transit we wanted you to know the expense. OK so we provided you 2 options extend the beach trolley. to the county park for $200,000 more. So that'd be $442,000 for PSTA, hypothetically. If you want to go even further down to the Don, you're probably talking another $200,000. So you'd be up to $642,000 for PSTA. And PSTA also graciously offered us another option of this $4,000 per year for year one for this Flamingo Pass. that could give residents an opportunity for a free, only St. Pete Beach residents for a free, unlimited access to any PSTA bus system. So they could ride Sunrunner, they could ride the trolley, they, well, Route 9 will be gone. So basically Sunrunner and the trolley, and we would have 200 cars to start with.

giving them annual free rides for the year yes and we would four thousand dollars and then they've offered after a year we would look at the data and we would renegotiate based on utilization and inflation okay um okay um i think i might have so so the 242 for 2027 is trolley and access And then I might've missed it. There's another 200,000 option to bring the trolley down even further South theoretically to County park.

Correct.

Okay. And another option is this new pass where we would pay 4,000 for 200 lucky souls to be able to ride for a year. Uh, lottery. Right. Right. Okay. Um, okay. think at least now have a better picture of it thank you and so your questions are uh psta yes or no and at what cost any additional micro transit which i'm almost because the alternative to microtransit might be this u-pass so maybe i should lump the u-pass over into microtransit and possibly also there's two hundred thousand dollars the trolley to go a little bit further might be the alternative to a microtransit i know it's not microtransit but these are alternatives if we lose microtransit make sure city staff is that kind of your thought process asked to explore with the only other contractual transit contract we currently have right now understood okay and and to be clear there might be other microtransit options that may come available to us or maybe offered as part of this rfp that was mentioned at the beginning

No, you have in front of you, we have five options and they range from 225,000 to over a million. Can I see them?

Because I don't know that I see them.

You won't see them because we haven't completed the procurement process. So at this point, we haven't gone through the full procurement process. share who the vendors are, what they've actually bid, all of that information until we've actually done our internal vetting of each individual

I understand what you're saying. I'm trying to figure out is this a decision you want us to make tonight and then later you will come with the five options in the more detail and we'll be able to make a decision or you're saying?

So this is a budgetary decision tonight. So you all asked us to go out and do a proposal to see if we could get microtransit for less than half a million dollars a year.

Yes.

We have brought you back that we have one option for less than half a million dollars a year. You have your current vendor for the same, around a half a million dollars a year, and three more vendors who are saying they will cost more.

Understood.

So the question tonight is, do you want to continue microtransit option?

All right. And very specifically freebie in this case, which No, no, no. Okay.

Do you want to continue micro transit? Okay, give us a budgetary amount to continue with our procurement process and budgeting, which we would then include in the budget you're going to see in two weeks.

Understood. Okay. So this is program but not budgeted?

Yeah, this would be a not to exceed amount. So whatever, you know, if you decide that you want to keep it, this would be a not to exceed amount and that amount would be used to negotiate a contract if you so want to move forward with microtransit.

Understood. That is a microtransit decision. Separately, you want us to make a PSTA decision? Okay. Got it. Okay. Okay. Apologize for... That's okay. Took a little while for your words to get over to my head, so I got it now. Thank you. All right. I'm sorry. I know there's some questions. Commissioner Marriott, please.

Yeah, thank you. I don't really have any questions. I have a few thoughts. So because I think that's where we need to go is what direction are we going to go? So I think first we need to keep in mind a little bit of what the history is and how we got here, right? And so some number of years ago we were paying more money for our PSTA contract and the trolley went all the way to Paso Grille. And largely it seemed at the time that the people in Paso Grille were very unhappy with buses being in Paso Grille at all. And so at that time, St. Pete Beach went to the PSTA and said, we don't want buses in Paso Grille.

Even trolleys, just to be clear.

We don't want anything. We don't want any buses. We don't want any trolleys. I think at the time, it was big buses going to Paso Gril. Maybe they were calling it a trolley. I think it was a Central Avenue trolley, but it didn't look like a trolley. It was a big bus. And so the people in Paso Gril said, we do not want the bus in Paso Gril. And they got out their pitchforks and said, get the buses out of Paso Gril. So the city commission at the time did that. um and uh and at that time decided that the money that they were saving by not paying psta for buses to go to passa grill they would use that money use less than that amount of money for this micro transit service that just went from the county park to passa grill and it was significantly less than what don't yeah maybe in the beginning it was just the dawn yeah just the dawn just the dawn to pass a grill and then as people liked it and more people wrote it they expanded it to the county park and then they expanded it to 75th and then they expanded it into all the neighborhoods to anybody's front door and every time we do that it gets more expensive right so that's how we end up with this 500 000 city subsidized uber rides is is what we're doing um and so So the question is, if $500,000 is too much, what do we want to subsidize? What do we want to provide for transit in the city? And so my thoughts about that are a couple of things. I've looked multiple times in the last couple of weeks. I think I can take an Uber from the North Beach neighborhood area to Paso Grill for $9 to $12 any time I want to. So maybe I'm not doing it at the busiest times. Maybe I'm missing the surge pricing. But generally speaking, there are private services available that can move people around in St. Pete Beach that are much cheaper per person per ride than what we're paying for micro transit at a $500,000 a year level. Now that we are charging non-residents to ride on the freebie, any group of three or more non-residents, it's cheaper for them to take an Uber than it is for them to take the freebie. So I'm not sure what the actual ridership numbers are. I'm sure we've all gotten the same information from residents about whether they use it all the time and love it or whether they wish they could use it and can't ever use it because the wait times are too long or all of those things. But for me, the root of the question for microtransit is, should the city be paying to subsidize rides that are very readily available in the private market day long seven days a week or or do we not and if we do at what dollar level and so um for me i'm not comfortable with the city providing or subsidizing or paying into you know picking picking a favorite from private enterprise who can provide the same service there's There's other services in the city that provide similar services. There's free beach ride. There's island hopper. There's uber There's you know, there's a lot of options that people have for getting around. So so for me the micro transit decision is is That generally speaking I'm not a big fan of it if the people in Paso Grill are welcomed having buses, that's probably the most efficient way to move people around. But I haven't gotten the impression that that's what they want. And so I don't think that's a necessary or something that's worth looking into. So for me, my recommendation would be to discontinue the microtransit program. Let's take that $500,000 and do something else with it. On the PSTA side, I'm a little more conflicted because there are those 70,000 people that get on the trolley in St. Pete Beach and go north. Some number of those are people who live in St. Pete Beach and want to go to John's Pass. Some number of those are people that stay at the hotels on the beach and want to go to Clearwater. A lot of them are employees of the various hotels further north. And so that's one thing. The more important part of it to me is the PSTA access program, because that's really, if you want to look at what should taxpayer dollars be going for, for why do we all pay into this pot of money that cities use to spend on things, one of those things to me is that we take care of the people who need the most help. And so to me, the PSTA access program is the more important part of it. And so I think it's worth exploring what those numbers are and negotiating a little bit more with PSTA and figuring out what the options are. So my recommendation would be that we Discontinue micro transit, but we continue to look into the PSTA Maybe go ahead and put that number in the budget as a placeholder for now While we continue to figure out what we're doing if we can't come to some agreement that seems reasonable We can still cancel it and reallocate that money But but that would be my that's where I'm landing on this I

Well, yeah, I'll go ahead because I wanted to, that was well put, Commissioner Marriott. So as far as the PSTA service goes, I'm wondering, since we're trying to look for cuts in our budget right now, what if we gave them a limit of a half of that, or say 100,000, and asked for what level of service could be provided to us at 100,000? Instead of the two hundred and forty two thousand and that way we would perhaps decrease or maybe we wouldn't decrease our ridership and Then we would also retain the access service. So we would basically be saying what can you? What service can we get for half that amount? Does that seem like it would be a thing? I

I'm not, my limited, granted, my limited knowledge of the PSTA system would be that it, perhaps anything is possible, but it may also be difficult. You know, if you're looking at, if you think about a bus route and you go, it comes down this street and it stops at these three places and it goes back and forth this many times, there's a cost to that. And if they're trying to allocate their cost what it costs to run the bus in the city and have us pay for that i don't know how you cut that in half unless you decrease the number of decreasing times yeah decrease the number of times it comes into the city and and i mean that's that's their business i don't i mean yeah you know

What it's worth, I took one of those numbers earlier, the ridership was nine months and the other ridership was 10 months, so I just equaled them out to an annual ridership. We get about 84,000 on the trolley and about 5,000 on the access, just using those numbers and putting about 12 months worth of service. So you think 30,000 riders, I'm sorry, 90,000 total riders between trolley and access at $220,000 was our cost last year, ended up about $2.44 per ride. projected at 242 this year which is next year's assuming the ridership stays the same that's two hundred sixty eight dollars two dollars and sixty cents per ride so I mean less than three dollars we're getting rides you know for ninety thousand people theoretically you know the freebie has been costing us sixteen dollars a ride or yeah and the freebie is fifteen to seventeen or whatever the number is right so I'm with you. So we've got two separate questions. One is microtransit at all. Second is PSTA and at what level? And if microtransit at what level as well?

Okay.

Sorry, Mr. Robinson.

Well, okay. Well, I think my recommendation then would be to see what level of service we could get for $100,000 from the PSTA. And that would also include the access that we have now. I don't think we've talked about microtransit enough, really, to make a statement on that. I know I get letters from people that say they use it all the time and they want to keep it, but I also have letters from people who think that we should cut it from our budget. And I think Commissioner Marriott's points about alternatives that don't cost anything, it's hard to see how we would subsidize something that is, in fact, I feel like, I know we have at least one local business that provides service to our city, and it seems like, the thing to do is to try to incentivize your local businesses and make them as strong as you can so i almost see it's almost opposite of that mindset so i guess that's my comment for right now i'm no mr robinson we may circle back around i guess if you need that

I would second everything Commissioner Marriott said but I would also preface it with the fact that we're not in a financially good situation in the city. If we were we may not even be having this discussion. But after the hurricanes after what our storm system our sewers are at what we're looking at right now talking about increasing potentially increasing ad valorem adding the rate hikes onto everything and then still having those assessments on our tax bills. It's a hard one to kind of swallow when it's monies that could be used better elsewhere within the city. So as far as for me for the micros transit at this time I don't think it's the right option to go with. I think there's other options within the city. There have been other options within the city, other alternatives. The cost per person is just way too high. So as long as we've fulfilled any legal obligations that we have from a transportation aspect, which I believe we have with Sunrunner in general, I think we're safe on that. As far as the PSTA side of things, the access and the mobility on demand, I don't believe they're the only alternative out there as well for access on demand. So that would be something I would look at as well. Not just PSTA or shop PSTA against others I mean, that's what we're about In the city, so I think we should just do do what's right in bed bed it from that standpoint As far as actual trolley I'm more for the mobility on demand aspect. See what we can get that. I mean what are we looking at we're looking at five thousand riders. I mean that's that's got to be a fairly low amount versus two hundred forty two thousand say that savings plus the freebie could go a long way in our budget and what we're asking of the residents as a whole. So that's where I would stand on that.

Commissioner Maldonado.

So I'm gonna ride Commissioner Robinson's wave and talk about the budget, the fact that we're at a financial cliff and trying to figure out where we can shed wasteful spending. I don't believe in subsidizing what we would consider commuter services. I do think it's important to consider the paratransit, the access services to make sure that we're not hurting our most vulnerable populations. And then also just a comment on the U-pass. You said 200 passes. I believe we have 1,000 persons currently enrolled in freebie. About 1,200 what we haven't been able to surmise from the data is how many of those are actually using it Yeah, so that that's a big challenge for us to get ahead of is to make sure that If we do go with that option, which seems like a pretty big value for what's being offered that we have Appropriately looked at that and then also whether it's gonna be a lottery system or a needs based economic based system or something like that I echo the comments of Commissioner Marriott and Commissioner Robinson and saying that micro transit at this point, I can't support that. Not that I don't want to. I see my freebie friends here. I know them in the community. But, you know, it's just I've got so much input to say that we just can't financially, fiscally be responsible and say that we support it at this point. So thank you. Mr. Marriott.

Yes, sorry, thank you for indulging me one more time. I had one other quick comment that I forgot to mention before, which is that when the Tradewinds and the Serrata conditional use permits were approved, part of those developments, if they ever are allowed to go forward, that they would be paying in you know I believe the number would be two hundred and twenty five thousand dollars a year for five years between the two of them for the first five years towards transit and so you know if we get to the point where those projects are going forward that two hundred and twenty five thousand dollars a year would go a long way towards bringing back some sort of micro transit program if we chose to at that point or Expanding the bus system or something like that So I think I think that that's that's just if we decide not to move forward with micro transit right now That doesn't mean that we're never gonna circle back to it Okay City manager did we ever get a

I don't believe we ever got ridership numbers from our current micro transit. I know we ultimately said it's $15 to $17 per person, so we must have some sense of ridership. You just mentioned 1,200 registered.

We do.

Okay.

We receive ridership numbers each month when they submit their invoice to the city. And right now we're about 4,000 is traditionally what they're invoicing at. They're saying that there's about 4,000 trips per month. And then it doesn't break it down further to resident and non-resident. So, I mean, at this point, once we did the math, off of the 38,000 approximately that they're paying, it ended up being about $17 a trip that we're paying in.

Okay, so you've already done that math. 550 that we pay minus the three dollars per and we end up losing The cost of the city is about 17 for about 17 purchase in the net end of all that right versus Again, I did some early math earlier on that I know that they're not equivalent but the math on the on the bus was two dollars and 45 cents something in that range versus 17 per ride. I think that you pass is an interesting alternative i think uh you know maybe some of these uh for our for our paratransits i think the psta access is is also an interesting alternative um and as other commissioners have pointed out we've got uh everybody has access to commercially available ubers and lifts and things like that so um i do have a hard time given the budget pieces that we're in uh right now saying that um that I can feel comfortable continuing to fund microtransit. I know there's a lot of passion in the community, so I don't know. We don't always take comments, but I frankly think we should take a few and just kind of hear what people are out. If you don't mind, if you have a concern. Yeah, I mean, I think we should just hear a few. How many audience comments do we have, city clerk, please, on this topic, or do you know?

Looks like there's four.

Okay. Yeah, I think, can we please take those comments?

Cameron Mazzucci?

My name, do I, do we have to do the thing with the address, or is this something different? Please. Okay, Cameron Mizuchi, 3307 West Maritana Drive, St. Pete Beach. I think this has been a great discussion. We're in a time where, obviously, our economics are really hurting, so I personally, Never been for freebie. And I live right across the street from the dances are where freebie originated. So I know the history, but I can tell you right away that it stopped going to pass the grill only right within a month or two. They were already expanding their business which and it seems like that's all they've been doing since we want to go from golf carts to teslas we want to go to you know minivans so it's just spend this get their foot in the door and just expand at the cost of taxpayers because there's nothing free about freebie What I can say is that we have a self-sustaining company that's a neighbor of mine and a service I've used as well in free beach ride. And they've proven that with no budget that they've been able to survive for I think almost 17 years. So I would suggest give Freebee their budget and see how long Freebee lasts on the beach. And in turn, I'd say if we're going to give any money to anybody, we should have from day one, let's look right here in our own community first. We have companies here, and they weren't even asked. What could those people do with even half of the budget that Freebee's asking for? I bet they could do quite a bit. So it's not really fair. Another thing, too, that I'm seeing, freebie versus other companies. It's not. We're like a community. We shouldn't be pitted from one company from Miami against locals. Hopefully what would happen if money is given to another company is that there's more drivers needed, and if drivers need a job somewhere else, they can move to that company, and hopefully it's a local company. Thank you.

Thanks, sir.

Bonnie Arnold.

Bonnie Arnold, 216 44th Avenue, St. Pete Beach, lived on this beach for 50 years. I have been through a lot on this beach. Freebie is a beautiful thing. It keeps people like basically safe. They can call and be done door to door. PSTA does not do that. And basically your Sunrunner is bringing a lot of people Okay, excuse me, I love everybody, but we got a lot of strangers coming as I'm out at different times of the evening. Not because I'm a street person, but because my life turns around and I might be out. I go to 7-Eleven and get my big golf. I'm telling you, people are coming on the beach. I talk to the sheriff. Trust me, a lot of people know me, okay? Even the sheriffs, okay? Fact is, I'm harmless. Fact is, we have a lot. Sunrunner is bringing a lot of people in that we don't want. The sheriffs are on the beach. bunches of times that I watch them. I have a condo at sunrise besides my house on 44th and I sit there and I'll be out on the porch and I'm going like, what is going on? And that's what they're doing. They're doing the homeless. I am super sorry about the homeless, but I don't think, St. Pete Beach residents, want this, and I'm talking about their men, like they need mental help, okay? And I mean, I'll walk into 7-Eleven and they're ready to fight me and it'll be a girl. And I'm like sitting there going, geez, I just want my big goats, you know? I'm talking about, and minding my own business, what I'm talking about is you've got a lot of people coming in that you guys aren't up at that time. And they're coming in, and the businesses are open. And we're not even talking about the drunks. We're talking about Joe. They're coming in on the sun runner. Freebie comes and picks you up, what have you. So how about charging? How about free, I don't think the residents would be pissed off about paying a little bit. I don't think it needs to be the city burden, but the fact is, PSTA should not be a city burden, period. It's not doing, it's not bringing what we need to do. I mean, we're trying to bring tourists into, tourist is great, but homeless is not. And you're transiting. I'm sorry, I'm over my time.

Thank you. Thank you very much.

Bob Sparrow.

Here.

I had a lot of good things I was going to talk about, but you guys have done a super great job of vetting the whole situation. I was originally coming up to, in my career I've been a vendor who's answered over 100 RFPs in my career. And I guess the comments that I would make is I know a lot of times these decisions get made in a vacuum and maybe you guys aren't, maybe this, I don't know, these are questions. The decision gets made and then they present you the findings. But I would just say in my line of business, there's always like a lights out. piece of the contract. And so I do know my wife works for Freebee. One thing I'm very, very surprised at is how well that business is run. And it sounds like it costs money to run it. Nothing's free. But I would also say that these guys really really vet and the lights out component is if there I would just say I would make sure that you make sure the people selecting or making recommendations make sure that from a legal perspective there's enough insurance involved in how this is handled because one catastrophic event with a company that you decide to go with if you do decide to go with micro could end up turning our lights out so that's just me being a concerned citizen Whatever that's worth, thanks.

Dana Richardson.

Dana Richardson, 5830 Bahama Way South. So we moved here in 2020 and I before then used to use free beach rides and it was great and it worked. And I agree with Karen Marriott, Lisa and maybe some others here. I think that we can get rid of freebie. Is it a great product? Sure. But it's very costly. And right now we just don't have the money to spend. Maybe another day in the future, but not now. And I do believe if freebie does get canceled, that that would also bring in maybe different companies to come in or free beach rides just kind of beefs up what they have. So that's my view. And again, like what Karen said, I don't have a lot of views for PTSA, but anything to do with the ones that are the least fortunate, the handicapped, I am all for. Thank you so much.

I have no more public comment on this topic.

Okay, thank you.

Yes sir, go ahead please. A quick question. While we have Brad here, I had mentioned the possibility of working to try to have only one bus at a time in the county park. And so if we end up with the service, then I understood you were gonna look into that. So I think that would be great. And as I've said, I've seen the bus two in this lot very often. And a third one on the street sometimes waiting to get into the lot. And then what I wanted to reemphasize is that I've also seen the drivers stop northbound at the coffee shops. And so that blocks one of the two lanes on Gulf Boulevard. So there's the Starbucks basically across the street there. So the Sunrunner will be stopped on Gulf Boulevard there in front of Starbucks for indefinite amount of time. And then the next coffee shop northward is Caribou Coffee and it also stops there and stays. I know the drivers go inside and order whatever. I wanted to highlight that to you as a pain point that we notice. That's all. That's all I had.

Okay. Thank you. Yes, sir. Yes, sir.

Sam, my question. Mandy, the last time we discussed this, I had requested that staff hold or informally coordinate with some of the hotels, the larger hotels, to see if they were willing, as Commissioner Marriott just reminded me about, if they'd be willing to subsidize it if the city did not. Was that done?

I can say I personally reached out there's a monthly hoteliers meeting I brought up this topic and the general tenor of the feedback was they were not interested because they'd like to keep their guests on site and that incentivizes their guests leaving these larger resort areas and so there was no interest in helping thank you no that's a very justifiable answer from their perspective but I just triggered me when

I will say that Tradewinds, I know Tradewinds and perhaps the Serato, but the Tradewinds has their own contract with PSTA where Tradewinds employees get one of those U-pass bus passes as do all of the Tradewinds guests. So though Tradewinds isn't contributing to the city's micromobility program, they are contributing to a way for their employees and guests to get around without having to rent a car.

Okay, interesting. That's actually good information.

Okay, city manager, do you have what you need? Good, just wanna make sure, okay. Thank you very much, I appreciate you, and lively, interesting discussion. Thank you everybody for your feedback, we appreciate you. I know there's a lot of, I will say this, we get lots of emails on this, I know there's a lot of passion on both sides, so thank you for everybody for your passion and your feedback. I think right now we're just trying to figure out what we can do with budget constraints and other things that we're dealing with, so thank you all.

Okay. All right. Next. I'm sorry? Were there other audience comments?

For general audience comments, which is next on the agenda.

I think it's where we're headed next, right? Yes. So please call general audience comments, please.

Vincent Tormania.

I don't understand why that PSEA goes all the way from Clearwater and stops at 75th when all the rest of the towns are being, has stops, and then it stops at 75th. That's one question. Second one, I'd like to know when Publix is returning, because that's also a problem. The third is that I spoke to Bruce Wright today in the tax collector's office. And they have a mistaken thing when we had the flood with Helene, Adalia, You know the hurricanes, they put down our homes as being remodeled instead of repaired and raised us $200,000 on our market value. Okay, I'm trying to get it fixed and it ranges from Bella Vista through the Don Cesar area. So I need the city to help out with this to take care of it. It went up 200,000 because he said to me, Bruce Wright, that was a remodel. I said, no it wasn't, it was a repair. To get back in my house. We had a hurricane here. I mean, I didn't choose to spend that kind of money to remodel my house. And that's the whole problem, what's going on right now. And that's going to affect a lot of things, because I told them. And it's going to affect you guys too, because a lot of people are going to vote yes on three in November because of this situation. They should have never did that. He's looking into it, and I came to the city tonight to see if you guys could help out with this. Because there's a lot of homes and a lot of properties, and I was on the phone with him for almost an hour and a half. And we were going through them, and they're down as remodels instead of repairs. And all of these subdivisions are getting raised $200,000. the market value of the house, which is raising their taxes. And new people are looking for money to raise the millage rate. I mean, there's a lot of things that are involved in this. And November is the biggest thing where they're going to say yes on three because they want to get rid of Pinellas County in plain English. So, I mean, we need to get this fixed.

Okay, that's it, thank you. Thank you. Yes, city manager, I would just personally comment. I mean, if we got our, everybody's trying to get back from these hurricanes and obviously if they got mischaracterized inappropriately, I would love us to see if that's truly happening. If I could ask please, would you and your team just kind of look and see if they've been mischaracterized? Let's make sure that they're characterized appropriately. because we don't want to punish people for just trying to get back on their feet, you know, post-storm, so. And I'll scratch that off my list for our next meeting.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you. City Clerk, please.

Michael Pezza.

Thank you.

Thanks, sir. Thank you, sir. I'm gonna tell you about my chiropractor.

My name is Mike Pezza. I live at 103 24th Avenue. Some of you may remember, ours was the home that we were willing to donate to the city. This was about a year ago. It didn't work out, but that was the start of our beginning to build a new home. I'm addressing all today with some recent circumstances on our new construction. I'm gonna highlight some of the important dates, but you can find the rest on our uploaded permit application. On 8-22 of 2025, it was a year ago, we submitted for permit. On 9-2, 2025, our architectural drawings without pilings were stamped approved by the building reviewer, Joseph Payne. On 10-9, 2025, the revision drawing with geotech and scour recommendations notated were submitted by our architect. We then went into a four-month delay due to an issue we had with the sanitary line with our neighbors. Got that resolved. On 2-13-2026, our architecture drawings stamped approved by zoning by Brandon Berry. On 7-7-26, pre-site inspection passed. 7-9-26 our permit was approved. 7-10-26 our soil compaction was in progress. 7-14-26 soil density test report submitted to the city. 7-15 our foundation excavation started. 7-24, a foundation formwork and rebar began and was in progress. On 8-2-26, a rebar inspection was requested. There was an unknown fee for $25 that held it up. So our builder went back on 8-19, requested a rebar inspection again for August 21st of 26. On August 21st of 26, while waiting for our inspection, our builder received a phone call from the inspector that our inspection was being canceled. Our builder immediately went to the city offices and was told by Lou Curtis that the property is within 300 feet of a coastal construction line and the criteria was overlooked during the planning review process. He also stated that he was sorry, but a third party reviewer was used by the city and it was simply overlooked. He showed our builder some software that the city uses to determine the rule, but explained that this software is not available to the public. Our builder was also told that there are a few other situations like this that have slipped through the cracks, but they're too far along for the city to do anything about them. The city had over one year to inform us of this matter. No correspondence was made by any building official prior to last Friday to inform us. We heard through a building inspector on a phone call that our permit was being holed up because we are not in compliance and pilots are required. No prior communication at all. What the city is doing is untimely and unfair.

Keep going, sir. Please continue. Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor. What the city is doing is untimely and unfair. Both geotech and structural engineers have stated that this is not posing either a health or safety issue to the public. We've met all the requirements, and there's no way to discern its enforcement due to the fact that the city uses a map that is not available to the public. This is causing tremendous financial and time loss hardship, and if enforced, we are looking at a financial impact to us upwards of $150,000. The whole thing would have to be redone. We have met all our safety requirements, and you're applying this rule in an arbitrary, capricious manner. The city needs to step in, take a look at this, and address this situation exponentially in order, in effect, to avoid these financial damages to us. Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

I've given you guys the pictures to show you where we're at with this. And there's a lot of work that has been done at this point. I talked to the contractor, and he stated that they would have to start off from the beginning, remove all the soil, all the rebar, all the footings. They've been working on this for over a month. this was brought to our attention before we went for permit we would had no choice we would have done the pylons but i never said we went we had it compacted we did everything the city has asked for us and now this comes up at the 11th hour which i just don't think is fair

Understood. I did. Thank you. City Manager, can you please make sure that we have staff look into this? Do we have we have contact information, I'd like to make sure that he has, please, if he could either get your information for questions, please. And, and I would like you please to help make sure that we follow through on this is as appropriate as we can.

I know who you are, Mr. President, so I'll be in touch. I would give you my business card, but they've been all given out. But I'll be in touch. Thank you. Appreciate it.

Thanks, sir.

Dana Richardson.

Dana Richardson, 5830 Bahama Way South. I just had one thing to say about the extension of the CHIL contract. I enjoy going to CHIL. I've been there many times in the evenings and listened to music, so I love CHIL. But with this contract, I personally would like to keep things black, white, and very clean. And is it possible to just do the $1,500 month rental fee versus a percentage of outdoor versus indoor? I think that can be possibly, well, I'm not even going to say it. All I'm saying, I prefer to keep it clean, a flat rate, whatever that rate is, on a monthly basis. Thank you.

Thank you.

I have no further general comments.

Okay. Thank you so much. Always good feedback. Thank you, everybody. Over to the agenda. Just a reminder, we polled B, C, and J for separate discussion. Minus those, do we have a motion on the remaining items minus B, C, and J?

Motion to approve the consent items or accept them as presented minus B, C, and J items.

Second. Vice Mayor Robinson. Yes. Commissioner Kazi.

Yes.

Commissioner Maldonado. Yes. Commissioner Marriott. Yes. Mayor Tate. Yes. The motion carries.

Okay. I'll vote to take an order. Let's go with consent 4B. Authorize the city manager to exercise the first extension as outlined in the contract to renew the parklet agreement with Chill Restaurant. I believe, Commissioner Robinson, you pulled it.

I just had two questions. I didn't see the insurance certificate in there, so I wanted to make sure we did have an insurance certificate because it's not in the packet.

We'll follow up with that, but I think that there is

Come to the microphone.

I'm sorry, sorry. Mandy Edmonds, resident services director. Yes, once we have this approved tonight, we'll follow through with the get the remainder of what's required for the contract.

Okay, yeah.

And that'll include the insurance and it'll also include hold harmless agreement.

Okay, and then payments made to date, are we current on all of the payments? I think it's basically the $1,500 a month.

We are. We're current through May. We just recently invoiced for June and July. But we are current. Yes.

Just wanted to make sure on that.

Just because we had a public comment, right now the minimum they pay is $1,500. So it escalates if their sales are generated more. So just wanted the commission to know that we are actually making more than $1,500 per month, some months, not all months.

Right. I just wanted to make sure we got the $50,000 that the taxpayers paid to build that parklet back. And that's really my big concern.

Because that was taxpayer funded.

Yes, ma'am.

Interest free. So to date, it's $52,994.43.

And there was a little architectural stuff in there, too.

So no, that's good. It's great that we're discussing that. OK. Thank you.

And that was all I had for that. Thank you.

I'll make a motion to authorize the city manager to exercise the first extension as outlined in the contract to renew the parklet agreement with Chill Restaurant. I'll second.

Commissioner Causey?

Yes.

Commissioner Maldonado? Yes. Commissioner Marriott? Yes. Vice Mayor Robinson? Yes. Mayor Tate?

Yes.

The motion carries.

Okay, thank you. Next item, 4C, Consent 4C. Authorize the city manager to execute the holiday decoration services agreement with Christmas Designers Florida slash Holiday Outdoor Decor at a cost of $76,621 for December 2026 holiday decorations.

I just have one question. What is the different, I mean, how many different poles I'm just looking at the huge discrepancy between pole trim and tree wraps on Passagrill on Gulfway and Passagrill Way for 22 blocks. There's 167 as a quantity. And then pole mounts on Gulf Boulevard from Quarry to the Bayway, which is many more blocks than 22, at 68.

So the pole wraps are gonna be what that candy cane looking garland is. That's what's down in Paso Grill. They're wrapped every pole. And then the pole decorations on Gulf Boulevard are the actual lighted pole decorations that you see. So that's, they're two different types of decorations. Does that answer your question?

So, well, it's two different types. I mean, there's just a different quantity amount. It just seems a little odd for what we've got here. I mean, are we talking, Both sides of the street, so we're talking what, 44 blocks? If I say from first to 22nd. From first to 22nd. And then we have golf and we have pass a girl away, right? So we're talking basically, right? And then, but still that's a huge discrepancy in the number.

It is, and I don't know if I necessarily have a justification for it other than that was what was written into the contract. Well, we've done it every year.

Every year it's been like that. I just find it... Does it look more Christmas-y than the rest of us? I wouldn't say that it looks more Christmas-y than the rest, but I would say that there's a reason they get more than Gulf Boulevard.

I think it's because they have all the palm trees. Yeah, they do line the palm trees. I think there's more poles to decorate in that chunk than there is. Or I mean, I you know, maybe there's not more polls overall. But, you know, we've got a lot of polls on everywhere.

We are getting rid of a few of them on the undergrounding.

I think the cost is if even though there's more polls, and I can, maybe we need to follow up. But the lighting on golf are the actual pretty Christmas trees and the the lights that are the last year they were the dolphins jumping through the Christmas trees or whatever we had. Those are only going golf. Then when you get the passing grill, they only get the tree wrap. Not lighted. Not lighted. So we have lighted decorations on golf, and we have just tree wrap and pass the grill.

Just wanted to know what the difference was.

I almost feel like we should have some continuity when you go from the bottom of the city to the north end of the city on that road. I would almost try to make it all look the same.

Do we have power, is that our problem? I'm sorry, power? Power?

Yeah, we do have issues with some of the poles are energized, some of them are not as far as the electrical that we do plug into. And we are working with Duke right now on a lighting survey and trying to correct some of the deficiencies that may be south of 55th Avenue. to the bayway some of those polls the city does not currently pay for the electrical so that's why there's some limited decorations heading from 55th south to the bayway whereas there's a heavier influx of decorations north of the 55th avenue so we are working actively with duke to correct that

So a couple questions and also points of clarification. They're not Christmas-y, they're non-secular. That's to address the zombies next door and stuff that keep bringing that up. Holidays. They're holiday decorations, right, by design. And we're never gonna get right. Last year we got beat up because we did dolphins and maritime themes. This year I'm hearing complaints about garland. Folks are very concerned about the garland and the wraps are garland and they're in the area where most folks are complaining about that. So my question, first of all, is because it's on county roads, why isn't the county paying or contributing towards this? Instead of the city, right? I mean, it's their road, it's their responsibility. So and then the other thing is, should we do it? Right? We're in a financial situation where we're looking at things very, very hard, very difficult decisions. Do the complaints outweigh the folks that are in favor of this?

the county or the state road issue I don't think that we've ever really you know reviewed that or looked into that so that's something that we can definitely look into and review as far as the should we I'm going to leave that decision up to you all it's a discussion for the Commission right I mean it's no soup for you right I mean folks complain enough about it then they really should consider whether or not we continue to do this

i liked last year's decorations i i will just i thought they were a nice change up from everything that we've done so i hope you didn't take a lot of heat on that we took some well you took it well to the to the to the um you know uh state on road and i think that's an interesting take on it right that's obviously entire Gulf Boulevard, all of that is state owned stuff. Interesting to see what they do. I would ask, how do we compare with other beaches? Is that just every beach suffering with the state has us doing the work? Or is there something unique about St. Pete Beach? I would just ask you to double check into that for me. And then I would just comment. I understand budget constraints and I think we should maybe look for opportunities to be more Effective and more efficient, but I think if we went with zero You know, we would be a very dreary kind of kind of town where everybody's trying to one every ten lights, you know I'm just saying I don't I don't I the should we do it? I think yes, I think it would cost us maybe a different dialogue, but And then is there a way to get other funding associated with it? I think all interesting. I don't know that that's going to get solved this evening. Yeah, I'm kind of seeing the head shake. I knew the answer before I asked it, what it's worth. I'm torn on it. Clearly, we're not going to get anything in time between now and December for the state to come in and say, yes, we're going to go ahead and subsidize it. Maybe that's a future conversation for next year or something like that. Give us time to really delve into it. And the question is this year, I personally think I don't want to see it go to zero. And so, you know, I think that would be a As much as people might think the comments on the other things, I think one to zero would get far more comments than the reverse.

We should have asked that at the roadshows.

We should have. We got tomorrow's roadshow left to maybe get a little feedback.

I will just add to this, too. The contract does expire 2027, so it is an opportune time to take a look at it, maybe even for next year before we go out and re-bid this.

Meaning it runs through Christmas 2027?

It doesn't know, it expires prior to, I wanna say it expires prior to September 2027, so we would have to go out to bid prior to.

This is our last year on this contract and we can revisit and discuss subsidies and all that fun stuff next year theoretically.

But the 75,000 number is, how did we come up with that number?

That was what was in the bid, so that was the winning bid.

So we told them what we wanted and they said this is how much it'll cost?

I believe we identified the poles that we had available and the areas that we wanted to have decorated and when we came back with the scope of work and everything, the proposal dictated where we were gonna place some of these lights, so. It was identified in the scope.

So now Garland. is doesn't really require lights, I presume.

No.

And OK. All right.

I think we are beyond the line of not go. My point was I just want people to know that this is a thing that the city has done, that we are highly supportive of. It does come at a cost, but we're struggling. So I agree with the mayor's comment We need to look at other funding sources. And that we'll have to reconsider it next year. I'm fine. I just wanted to throw that grenade out there and see what

I will say this late in the season I'm sure that they've got many municipalities that they deal with so I don't think we're gonna get a lot of changes it's it's either go or no go and I would personally have the mindset of go because I don't want to see a no decoration year I will say if our contracts up before next Christmas we've got opportunities to talk about you know what type of lighting which polls subsidies And and I also just while we're at the dialog, I've had some comments about kind of the plastic use inside of those things as well, in addition to some of the other comments. And and maybe there's an alternative to just go with something that's

know theoretically brick and mortar um in the summary of issue and the agenda report should actually read storm water inspection and cleaning so i apologize for that air and i'll uh do a better job in my oversight it was a reason for me to get you up here too um so can you give us an update on the current status of how much uh how many

potentially impact bond ratings and actually increase the cost of borrowing for future projects. I believe it is a responsible choice to move on this issue because keeping fees below what is necessary now can shift a larger financial burden onto future residents and businesses. Improvements to aging infrastructure do not become less expensive with time. Despite the challenges and increased costs associated with being a barrier island, the proposed sewer rates for the first year are still in line with surrounding cities. This suggests that the initial increase is reasonable and not excessively burdensome for rate payers. The restructure is consistent with the public finance principle of cost causation, where rates reflect the demands customers place on the system. Using meter size as part of that calculation is a common utility practice and it creates a more equitable way to distribute costs among users. because small businesses are an important part of st pete beach's character and economic resilience i would urge the city to monitor and evaluate how the rate adjustments affect them this would allow the city to identify any unintended impacts before future adjustments take place communication will also be important best practices include early outreach using plain language through multiple channels This could include mail notices or bill inserts, email updates, or a page on the city's website explaining the new rate structure and potentially how businesses can go about getting their meters evaluated and resized. I believe this ordinance is a fair and responsible step forward. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. Very impressive. Thank you very much. Other audience comments, please.

I have no further audience comments.

Thank you so much. That was quite interesting. And so since we don't have a staff report, we don't have any questions or comments unless there's commissioner comments. Okay, is there a motion?

I make the motion to adopt ordinance 2026-16.

I'll second.

Vice Mayor Robinson? Yes. Commissioner Cozzi? Yes. Commissioner Maldonado?

Yes.

Commissioner Marriott? Yes. Mayor Tate?

Yes.

The motion carries.

Okay, thank you. We're on to ordinance item 5B, first reading ordinance 2026-17, reclaim water fees. City attorney, please.

This is similar, no presentation, but staff is here for questions. An ordinance of the city of St. Pete Beach, Florida, amending city code appendix A, fee schedule providing for amendments to city reclaimed water system fees, providing for repeal of ordinances or parts of ordinances in conflict herewith to the extent of such conflict. providing for codification, conflict severability, correction of scrivener's error, construction, publication, and an effective date.

Okay. Thank you. I understand there's no report. So audience comments?

I have no audience comments on this item.

Okay. Any Commissioner questions of the City Manager? Anybody else? All right. Is there a motion then?

I'll make a motion to adopt Ordinance 2026-17, Reclaimed Water Fees.

I'll second.

Commissioner Causey?

Yes.

Commissioner Maldonado? Yes. Commissioner Marriott? Yes. Vice Mayor Robinson? Yes. Mayor Tate? Yes. The motion carries.

Okay. Next we're on to items for discussion. And I believe the only one that I captured was mothballs on the beach for Commissioner Maldonado.

Yeah, so first and foremost, let me just say that everyone is innocent until proven guilty. I won't get into the specifics. But the city after or upon hearing that mothballs were placed behind some hotels without a very strong statement, we said that there was zero tolerance that we would do everything with accountable. So my Not question, but necessarily my input to the commission would be that we get ahead of that, that we work through our attorneys with the state attorney's office, that we ensure that as victims, the city being a victim, that we present our position to the state attorney and that we ask that we are considered within that I personally would push for the maximum sentence if these persons are found guilty that they're held accountable to the highest standards and then that we also prepare sanctions in the event that the businesses or the persons are at fault are found guilty so In this case, depending on the severity and the outcome, there can be some very, very stiff sentences, and then the city, I believe, can take additional steps. This would be for the attorneys to guide us, but this has separate to do with the charges that they're faced, and I do think that as victims, characterizing the city as a victim, that we're due restitution, and that we also have the power, in some cases, to pull licenses, specifically liquor licenses, Depending on the outcome of this, and that's where I stand with this, I believe very firmly that if found guilty, that these persons should be held ultimately responsible to the extent that we can and that the city needs to get ahead of this. We can't wait for the state attorney to make some kind of deal or not hear our input. So I wanted to put that out there. I'm getting a lot of input from residents who feel passionately and just as strong about this as we do, as I do, I should say. Not only my district, but as I do personally, I think that There are things that we can do. I know that the state attorney is working diligently to look at this. It was a pretty big case for the FWC. I applaud them for their efforts. They went above and beyond to try to find the evidence. Now it's just a matter of proving what they suspect. So that's what I want to discuss. Thank you.

And I wonder if business licenses would fit into that concept.

Everything's on the table.

I would I would agree with you on holding them to as we've said, hold them to the highest level that we can if that includes pulling a liquor license and anything on the beach, you know, we're just so lucky that a small child didn't eat one of those.

I just let alone the wildlife that's bad enough but for the the risk to the residents and you know children wildlife only thing we could do would be as part of a victim impact statement that we present to the state attorney or that we also present to the court if there's that opportunity it could be something that could be mentioned or asked for Otherwise, you have to look at your own licenses and things that you bestow on somebody.

Cabana service, whatever that is. So that would be one.

Listen, I agree. I would love to hear some legal opinion. some of the accused in this situation, at least one of the accused is also in other issues with us, so I'm careful how far we have open dialogues given that there's other open cases, as I understand it, legal cases in these situations unaffiliated with mothballs on the beach, right? So, but that said, as victims i think i think we should make sure that we understand what our rights attorney of the state's office so i would ask that we that we just itemize what are our options here and what do we have on the table that we could use as as potential grievances if you will and remedies that we would recommend to the state attorneys in this situation.

You could ask for costs. If you had any of your staff involved in the cleanup or in the investigation, and there was a cost to the city, you can ask for restitution.

I love it. Rather than this forum, can we ask that we just maybe itemize something that we could just bring back and distribute to at least the commissioner, wherever it needs to go, that says, here's our potential avenues of remediation given this situation. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. I don't have any other items for discussion, so I think we have our commission reports. Our city clerk, I'll start with you, please.

I have nothing to report this evening.

Okay. City manager, anything to report?

Nothing to report.

Ms. City Attorney?

Nothing.

Okay. Commissioner Maldonado?

Yeah, so again to the folks that attended our workshop on the budget, well attended. Thank you so much to the staff, the mayor, everyone for setting that up. A lot of great dialogue and certainly some very informative presentations. The answers there are hard questions. I got an email just to talk about some hurricane recovery grants for storm-related expenses or debts. Apparently, the government gave Pinellas County $813 million worth of grants that are still out there for folks that are still trying to recover so um if you haven't received that go to recover.pinalis.gov to get information and this is also for small businesses so please take advantage of that the more people that apply the more likely that people in our city will get some kind of relief so thank you thank you sir uh commissioner causey

I do have a few items I wanted to discuss. I have received reports of three damaged seawalls in District 3, but I don't really have a way to see these things. Is there a process in place, I'm wondering, where the city can check on the status of the seawall? And also, I would say that a couple of them were severe enough to where the soil is disappearing into the canal. And so I think this is a notice for the people who have these seawalls, but also for the city to possibly look into these. And I'll move on to publics.

Can I ask real quick just on that? Are you talking public or private seawalls?

Private seawalls. Thank you. Yeah, that's a good clarification. Private seawalls. So if I, for example, were to use C-Click Fix, I don't really know that there's, I can't tell from the street whether this is the case or not. So it seems like there would be a process for this. So Publix, I keep getting questions about Publix and what I feel like is this is one of the biggest problems that we have in our city, a perceived pain point. And I don't feel like we are keeping everyone up to date enough on, I almost feel like we need to have a Publix report every single commission meeting. So I'm sure things don't change that quickly but This is a big deal for us. And so I would ask that we think about keeping the public more notified about our negotiating or the status of publics. This week I wanted to say that our new community action group, the Beautification Community Action Group launched and it was well attended. We had seven residents show up for the meeting on that, the initial meeting. They're excited about addressing things from parks to signs to and helping out with any kind of beautification projects and also mentioned the idea of forming a non-profit so that if the city's not gonna repair things maybe next year due to budget constraints, then we might reach out and ask for donations. So that, I wanted to let everyone know that that is up and running now. This week also, I'll highlight that I am still doing my neighborhood meetings on Mondays, and so I start in the afternoon at the Don Cesar Neighborhood Park, and then I move up to Belle Vista and finish off in Lido. So every Monday afternoon, basically between 3.30 and 6 in those three locations. And so I'll have people show up and they have a chance to ask questions and I can talk to them. Sometimes if you want to talk to me, you can schedule into that time slide as well. That's all I've got. Thank you, sir. Mr. Robinson.

Just a reminder that tomorrow night is the District 2. And anybody else who wants to come, if you missed one, come on to the Budget Roadshow at the library, 5.30 to 7 PM tomorrow night. Also, I do my library hours typically first Monday. But first Monday next month being Labor Day, it will be the second Monday of the month, so the 14th of September from 5 to 5.45 at the library as well.

Mr. Marriott.

Thank you. I just want to congratulate the Helm on reopening in their new space in District 1. I know everybody is super excited about their bigger space and longer hours, and so if you haven't been, go have dinner at the Helm. It's fantastic. And that's it.

Thank you. Impromptu, I would say we have many, many great restaurants, the Helm being one of them, and congratulations to the Helm family. I see a lot of, this is impromptu, so I apologize. I see a lot of social aspects of what great things make St. Pete Beach wonderful and our great restaurants and small businesses, not only shopping and the theater and all kind of things. So please support our businesses as you can. We love him and we appreciate him. Back onto what I did actually have on my agenda here. Thank you to all the residents and also to the city staff and my fellow commissioners who've been attending the Budget Roadshows. We're now three out of four down. Very good discussion. Very lively feedback, very good responses from our residents, and we sincerely appreciate it. I do wanna say I've joined all three. I've had kind of a preamble opening statement. I say unfortunately for tomorrow's meeting, but not unfortunately for me. I'm heading on PTO tomorrow, so I will be out of town for tomorrow's evening, tomorrow evening's event, so my understanding, city managers, we might be able to have a video that shows know maybe a recent recording that i did kind of promoting these these roadshow events anyways um and with apologies that i won't be able to make it but i will be watching intently the results of uh not only the the road show and the notes that come out of it but uh but the survey results accordingly um and with that i think that was it for me thank you there being no further uh business this meeting is adjourned